Legal News

You Thought the Sharon Keller Story was Done? Think Again

By Ashby Jones

Silly us. We thought the situation with Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Sharon Keller had run its course.

After all, last month, the special master appointed to find facts on the matter ruled that Keller doesn't deserve to be removed from office or given a reprimand for her conduct in a death row inmate's failed effort to file a last-minute appeal before his execution. His findings were later submitted to the state’s judicial conduct commission.

But it appears the saga still has some legs to it. In a recent filing, prosecutors for the State Commission on Judicial Conduct argued that Keller’s “willful and/or persistent conduct” in the case authorizes the commission to sanction her anyway. Click here for the Texas Lawyer story; here for the Houston Chronicle story.

In its filing, according to the Texas Lawyer, prosecutors took issue with the findings of the special master, David Berchelmann, which included his positioning some of the blame at the feet of the lawyers for Michael Richard: “In effect,” wrote the prosecutors, “the Special Master improperly turned the proceeding before him into the semblance of a tort case or other proceeding in which comparative responsibility or fault is an issue. The issue here is not [Richard's lawyers'] conduct, but Judge Keller’s conduct.”

According to the Texas Lawyer story, the commission can drop the charges against Keller, reprimand her or recommend to the state Supreme Court that she be removed from office.

Keller’s lawyer, Chip Babcock, however, in his response to the commission’s filings, says that disregarding everything the special master found and kicking Keller off the bench would violate her constitutional due process rights.

“Somebody’s job is a property right,” Babcock says. “You can’t take away a property right without due process.”

Click here for all previous LB coverage of the Keller situation.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 25, 2010 (boomark / email).